Combined egg candling and assembling device



oct. 30, 1923 mman W. G. REAGAN COMBINED EGG GANDMNG AND ASSEMBLING DEVICE.

Filed Oct. G. 1921 2 Sheets-Sheet l er Ham @i Armen/frs Oct. 30,1923.

w` G. REAGAN COMBINEP EGG CANDLING AND ASSEMBLINQ DEVICE Filed Oct. 6. 1921 .2 Sheets-Sheet 2 A TTUH/VEYS BYMV.

Patented Oct. 30, 1923.

l WALTER G. REAGAN, OF LEBANON, INDIANA.

COMBINED EGG CANDLING AND ASSEMBLING DEVICE.

Application filed October 6, 1921. Serial No. 505,855.

To all 'whom t may concern:

l Be it known that I, WALTER G. REnGAN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Lebanon, in the county of Boone and State of Indiana, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Combined Egg Candling and Assemblin Devices, of which the following is a full, c ear, and exact description.

An object of my invention is to provide a device by means of which a plurality of eggs may be candled simultaneously, thereby resulting in economy in the candling operation.

A further object of my invention is to provide a device in which a candling tray containing the eggs is arranged so as to deposit the eggs in an egg case in the same rela-tive position which they occupy in the candling tray, thus obviating the necessity of removing the eggs by `hand from the candling tray, and depositing them in the egg case.

A further object of my invention is to provide a device of the type described which is relatively simple in construction. y

Other objects and advantages will appear in the following specication, and the novel features of the invention will be particularly pointed out in the appended claims.4

My invention is `illustrated in the accompanying drawings, forming part of this application, in which- Figure 1- is a vertical sectional view through the egg candling device, i

Figure 2 is a vertical section along th line 2-2 of Figure 1,

Figure 3 is an enlarged section substantially along the line 3-3 of Figure 1, showing the tray in position todeposit eggs into the egg case. s l

Figure 4 is an enlarged section along the line 4 4 of Figure 3,

Figure 5 is a modied form of the device along the line 5-5 of Figure 6,

Figure 6 is a plan view of a modified form of the tray,

Figure 7 is a section along the line 7--7 of Figure 6, and

Figure 8 is a perspective view of the tray disclosed in Figures 1 and 2.

In carrying out my invention, I provide a casing 1 which may be made of any suitable material, such as metal, wood or the like, and supported preferably on legs 2. Within the casing is an electric light clusterB which is adapted to be connected by the conductor 4 with any suitable source of current. The top part of the casing is expanded to form a hood fwhich is open on one side only. l

On the interior of the casing 1 is a bracket 6 which is arranged to support the candling tray. The general form of the candling tray is best shown in Figure 8. It consists of a frame? having a series of longitudinal partition-s 8 with transverse partitions 9 at right angles thereto. The transverse partitions 9 are preferably cut away at 10 so as to provide means for readily grasping eggs. rIhe partitions 8 and 9 thus arranged formV a` series of compartments, each arranged to hold an egg. In the present instance, there are thirty-six compartments. The bottoms of these compartments are formedby a series `of hinged plates, such as those shown at 11. In the present instance, there are 6 of these hinged plates, as shown in Figure 2,V each plate being provided with openings 12 arranged to receive the bottom portion of an egg 13, so as to aid in retaining the egg in position. As will be seen from Figure `1, the bottom 11 is journaled at one end by means of a trunnion 14, which enters the side of the casing. The opposite end ofthe bottom eX- tends through yan inner wall 15 (see Figure 4) and each trunnion '14 has rigidly secured thereto an arm 16 (see Figure k3). The outer end of each ofthe arms 16 is pivotally connected at 17 with a bar 18, which has a handle 19 arranged to project through a slot' 20. A spring 21 is fastened to the bar 18 at one end and to the opposite end of the lower part of the tray frame 7 at the other end. The arms 16, when in the position shown in `Figure 3, are acted on bythe spring 21 to maintain the hinged'bottoms 11 in closed position. When the handle 19 is pushed downwardly, however, the bar 18 will be swung into the dotted line position shown in Figure 8, and this will bring the bottoms into the dotted line position. The spring 21, however, will have shifted its -position so as to hold the bottoms open.

`The mechanism for operating the bottoms simultaneously is preferably located between the wall 15 and the outer wall of the casing 1.

From the foregoing description of the various parts of the device, the operation thereof may be readily understood. In the use of the device, eggs are placed inthe compartments of the tray, the bottoms of the eggs resting in the openingsr 12, the handle 19 being in the full-line position shown in Figure 3. The tray is then lifted by means of the handle 22 and placed in the frame 1, so as to rest on the bracket 6. The operator then candles the eggs by viewing them through the open end of the hood. Any stale eggs may Vbe removed andV other eggs placed in their position. IVhen the operator has satisfied himself as to the condition of the eggs, he then removes the tray by means of the handle and places it on the inside of the egg crate 23, where it rests on the pasteboard partitions 24, which form the compartments into which the egg crate is divided. It will be observed that the compartments in the candling tray register with the compartments in the egg crate. Now, by pressing. downwardly on the handle 19, the hinged bottoms are moved downwardly, so as to permit the egg from each compartment ofv the tray to drop into a. cory responding compartment in the egg case.

The candling tray is then removed, and on a slight upward pull of the handle 19, the hinged,y bottoms 11 will snap back intoplace and be held there by the tension of the spring 21, ready to receive another batch of eggs. It will be seen that with this device, the necessity of grasping the eggs with the hand and holding them up toi properly candlethem one by one is obvia-ted. Furthermore, the time lost in distributing the can dled eggs. in the egg cases in the ordinary way is obviated, since by merely pressing the. handle the eggs on the tray are im- Vmedately placed in the ca se in their proper positions.

` In practice, I prefer to use an egg tray of thirty sixcompartments, so as to fit over andk register with the compartments in one half of an egg crate. Obviously, however, the number of compartments could be varied', without departing from the invention. Thus in Figures 5, 6 and 7, I have shown acrate having only a dozen compartments. V Such a crate is used in transportngeggs, as well ascandling them.V

' In the modified form, a4 frame 25 is provided with longitudinal partitions 26Vand transverse partitions 27 making a series of compartments. The bottoms of these compartments are formed by a single slide 28, having openings 29 to register with the compartments. This slide is preferably made of metal and is turned up at one end to provide a handle 30. The slide enters a slot in the frame 25, and is preferably supported on brackets 31. In this form of the device, eggsmay be placed in the tray when the slide is in the position shown in Figures 5 and 7, and the tray containing the eggs may then be placed in the frame 1, and the eggs candled in the manner described. The tray may Vbe then removed, andthe eggs left in the tray until` they have been delivered to the consumen Instead of taking the time to remove each egg or to run the risk ofY breaking the eggs by. dumping them out, all that is necessary is to place the tray on a supporting surface and pull out the slide,4 when the eggs: will be immediately deposited' on the surface without any danger of breakage.V In both of these forms of trays, it will-be observed that the eggs are held in openings in the bottoms of the tray, which openings also servefas light openings for'the candling process. The bottoms of each tray are-removable so as to deposit the eggs thro-ugh the bottom of the tray. In each form of the device a number of eggs may be candled simultaneously, without the necessity of removing the eggsfrom the tray or of turning them.

I claim: Y

1. A candling tray having a plurality of compartments therein, a swingable bottom for each compartment, vmeans for moving said bottoms into opened position, said means being adapted to lock said bottoms in opened position.

2A candli-ng tray having a plurality of compartments therein, a swingablebottom for each compartment, Varms rigidly ,connected to said bottoms and being adaptedA to actuate the latter, and spring means for yieldingly holding said arms in opened or held in opened or closed position.

WALTER` Gr'. REAGAN. Y 

